Sticks and Stones
by X Blood Guts And Angel Cake X
Summary: NoCo. (Rated T for language.)


**Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or Noah &amp; Cody in any way, shape, or form... But dude, I want to more than ANYTHING. :D**

* * *

They laughed together as they took turns throwing little rocks from the side of the slow-moving river into the water, watching the pebble make a splash and cause the water to ripple.

Noah handed Cody another stone. "Throw this one in."

Smiling, Cody took it and chucked it into the river. It didn't get too far considering he and Noah were sitting at the side of the water, the bottoms of their shoes getting a little dirty from the gravel and a little wet from the river. Cody's legs were draped over Noah's lap with the know it all's arm looped around the geek's waist. Once again, the rock that had just been tossed made a small splash and a "bloop" noise. They looked at each other again for a moment until Cody cuddled into Noah's upper body.

"See? I told you this would be fun," Cody said to him.

Picking up a small rock and throwing it into the water himself, Noah mumbled a dry yet light-hearted, "Whatever." Before they had came, he kept trying to convince Cody that they they should just watch a movie or play video games at one of their places, not in the outdoors. It took a while, but Noah finally gave into his boyfriend's pleading. He didn't want to admit it, but he actually was having a good time.

Cody gave a little laugh. "We should do this more often."

"Umm, how about no," the bookworm suggested instead.

"Oh why not?" the shorter teen pulled his head away from Noah's chest and looked at him. "You even just said yourself that this was fun."

With his free hand, Noah traced one of his fingers in the dirt he and Cody were sitting in and clarified, "I said "Whatever," I never said the exact term, "Yes.""

"Quit being in denial. You like being out here," Cody grinned. "You can't even look me in the eyes and say you're not enjoying this; you're drawing in the dirt just as a distraction."

Noah scoffed. "I can, but I'm choosing not to."

"Mmm hmm," Cody said, obviously skeptical. He'd have kept fighting to win the argument, but he already knew very well Noah wouldn't give in.

The natural environment and the quiet sound of their breathing were the only noises heard after that. The two had gone silent once Cody tried to be sweet and wrapped his arms around Noah's shoulders like he'd done before. Noah's reaction to that was a light chuckle, and he returned the favor by hugging Cody closer to him.

It felt so perfect. They were both happy.

However, their peacefulness didn't last all that long once Cody's eyes widened with fear when he saw a large insect near his foot. He let out a shriek and jerked his legs away. He pointed at the bug. "N-Noah...?!"

The tanned boy simply laughed at Cody's fear. "You're serious? Wow. If I ever had to flip a truck, no doubt would you be the first person I'd go to. It's not gonna kill you, you know," he explained, almost bored.

"Dude, just kill it! It's freaking me out!" By this time, Cody was a good yard away from Noah and the insect. He was bracing himself, ready to bolt up from where he was sitting.

Although Noah found this whole situation to be amusing, he did as he was implored. With a nearby rock he spotted that was about the size of his fist, he used it to kill the cause of Cody's uneasiness. He lifted the rock back up again.

"There. It's dead, Mr. Wuss. Happy?"

Cody nodded. "Heheh, thanks."

Noah rolled his eyes. But suddenly, he felt something tickling at his fingers.

He hadn't noticed that the rock he had used to kill the insect by Cody's feet had a spider, twice the size of the creature his boyfriend was scared of, crawling on it. The spider's legs traveled off of the rock and was now roaming his knuckles.

The word, "Fuck!" flew from his mouth as he realized what was on him.

Cody became confused. "Noah?"

But Noah ignored Cody and instead began flailing his arm around rapidly, dropping the rock. He had the look of traumatization as he shook himself free of what he saw as something that would massacre a city. He instantly backed himself away and was now next to Cody again.

A sly smile formed on Cody's lips after Noah's little performance. The teens looked at each other with the slightly taller one panting.

"And you call me a wuss?" Cody asked, trying desperately to not laugh.

"That shit wasn't funny!"

Cody shrugged. "Ehhhh, it kinda was," he giggled.

Crossing his arms over his chest and shooting his boyfriend a death-glare, Noah insisted, "Shut up. I'm far beyond ready to get out of here now."

Cody laughed gently once again, and after a moment or two, he saw Noah wasn't really mad. He looked embarrassed, rather than angry. To comfort him, Cody pulled him into a hug, giggling as he agreed, "Fine. Let's go."

Just as Noah was about to stand up and let go of Cody, Cody's grip around his shoulders pulled him back down. The geek gasped and pointed to the water. "Look! Ducks!"

_"He can't be serious..."_ Noah thought. He looked at the river again and saw that coming into view was a family of two parent ducks and a few ducklings.

Noah was mentally face palming himself. "Fascinating," he said. His voice was overflowing with sarcasm.

Cody playfully hit Noah's stomach with the back of his hand. "Come on. They're cute!"

"They're also meaningless to me," Noah commented. "You said we could leave now."

"Fine. You can go back up to the car if you want, but I wanna watch the ducks pass."

"Oh my God, Cody. Please tell me you're just being stupid."

"I'm not."

Noah sighed and rolled his eyes. Cody could be so childish in his eyes sometimes... A reason why he liked him, but only to a certain extent. "Whatever," he said before giving Cody a quick kiss on his cheek and standing up. "Don't be too long though."

"I won't." Cody smiled.

Before Noah turned away and started walking back up the path he and Cody took to get to the riverside, he looked back over his shoulder at the short teenager. He smiled for a reason he couldn't exactly pinpoint. Cody just made him feel… _different._

The bookworm stopped his daydreaming after a few seconds and started walking. The trail they hiked wasn't long but wasn't short either. Trails that weren't short were trails Noah hated.

_"The things he drags me into..."_ he thought, the "_he"_ referring to Cody.

The thing that sucks most wasn't the fact that Noah was walking a trail by himself, no... it's the fact that halfway through his journey back, he remembered Cody still had the car keys. _"You've got to be kidding..."_

Realizing he was already about halfway done with the hike however, he continued on. Cody shouldn't be too long.

* * *

Meanwhile, Cody watched in amusement the family of ducks swim before him. He liked the babies, especially. He always picked out a favorite and focused most of his attention on just the one.

They passed not too long after they came. He knew Noah probably hadn't gotten too far yet, and he felt he should probably try to catch up with him so that they could walk together, but he didn't feel like leaving yet. He secretly enjoyed nature. It soothed him.

_"Eh, I'll stay for just one more minute,"_ he thought.

He reached for a pebble near where he was sitting and chucked it into the river. He did this again and again until he then picked up another rock, about the size of his fist, and looked at it for a moment. His intentions were to throw it into the water along with the other stones he'd discarded, but as he was looking at this specific one, he started having different thoughts.

A section of it was pretty flat, and its color was a light gray. It was the perfect size to maybe... Make something out of it.

Cody set it down in his lap and reached for two more stones: One that was extra sharp, and the other the first one he saw. With the sharp one, he streaked it across the other.

_It looked like chalk._

He mentally grinned as he then started using the "chalk" and began writing on the rock that had originally given him the idea. He was careful not to mess it up as he wrote a message on it, focusing deeply on each letter, making sure they were as perfect as he could make it, even though his handwriting was terrible.

It was only about one or two minutes before he finished. He looked at his completed work and felt himself fill with pride as only one person was on his mind:

_"Noah..."_

* * *

His chin was in his one hand as the other was gripping a stick he had picked up out of boredom from waiting. Noah was sitting by the front tire of Cody's car Indian-style, with the thin branch he was holding as his only source of entertainment. As he was tracing random lines in the dirt, he couldn't help but hate himself for forgetting to bring his cell phone... And for letting Cody drive them.

Suddenly he heard light footsteps approaching and looked up. His boyfriend was smiling sheepishly at him, his hands behind his back, slightly blushing.

Noah arched an eyebrow. "What took you so long? Did the ducks keep you held captive for three hours?"

Cody knew Noah was only kidding as he could still hear a trace of kindness in his voice. He chuckled before saying, "No, they treated me very well," and reaching one of his hands out to Noah to help him off the ground.

The know it all accepted the offer with a smirk, dropping the stick he was holding. As he stood up, he noticed one of Cody's hands was still hidden behind him. Before he could ask anything, Cody explained, "I got you something."

"... Really?"

Cody nodded sweetly. "Close your eyes and hold out your hand."

Noah immediately took a step backwards, despite what Cody had requested. "If it's another spider then I highly suggest you cutting the charade right this second," he warned.

"Dude, it's not that, I promise. Just do it, please?!"

Slowly, and with reluctance and regret in every movement, Noah extended his arms out in front of him, shut his eyes tight, and braced himself. "Okay..."

Only a few seconds had passed before Noah felt something hard and cold be placed into his palms. He was relieved it didn't feel as though it were alive.

"Okay, you can look now!" Cody said, excited.

Noah's brown eyes fixed themselves on a rock he was now holding. He looked at it closer, and smiled as he read what was inscripted on it in Cody's sloppy handwriting.

It read, "C + N" inside of a heart.

"How cheesy," Noah joked.

The geek flung himself at Noah and hugged him tightly, who also hugged back with a little laugh. They could feel each others' hearts beating quickly in their chests when they were pressed up against each other.

"Thank you," Noah mumbled.

This made Cody squeeze him harder.

They finally broke apart, and noticed that they were both blushing deeply. Then Cody started making his way to the driver's side of his car, until an idea sparked in Noah's head. He grabbed Cody's wrist and halted him when he saw the stick he was lazily playing with earlier, was still by their feet.

"What?" Cody questioned.

Noah forced Cody to hold the rock.

"One sec," Noah assured him. He didn't let go of his boyfriend's forearm as he leaned over and picked up the thin branch. Still with no explanation, he led Cody to a spot a few feet away from where they were.

"Dude, what're you-"

"Shhh..."

The know it all got behind Cody and practically wrapped his arms around his stomach from behind. He guided one of Cody's hands to grab hold of the stick, which Cody did although he had no idea what the hell Noah was up to.

Noah's one arm stayed around Cody's waist while his hand on his other trailed down to Cody's fingers that were clinging to the stick, where he took hold of the back of Cody's hand with his own.

Though he was still confused, Cody felt as if the atmosphere turned romantic in that instant, as his boyfriend was practically cuddling him. Noah was never the type to willingly show signs of affection... So what was he doing right now?

"Follow my lead," Noah said softly into his ear from behind him.

His tone sent shivers down Cody's spine.

Noah controlled both of their arms arms he began dragging the end of the stick they were holding along the dusty dirt.

Cody finally understood now. A smile and even more blush crept to his face as he let Noah continue. He could feel Noah's breath crawling down his neck, which made him feel warmer, safer.

He was still watching as the stick traced over the dirt, and he could see what he thought to be a masterpiece be drawn right before his eyes. By this time, Cody knew what it would be from what was written already. He brought up his hand that was still clutching the rock and rested it on top of his boyfriend's that was on his stomach.

It was finally finished now, Noah's drawing in the dirt. Noah chuckled as he read it to himself, feeling extremely cheesy about what he had made. Inside of a heart, it was:

"N + C"

Cody giggled as he stared at it for a few more seconds, taking it in. Noah lowered his head down a few inches so his chin was sitting on Cody's shoulder.

"Mmm, you like it?" the bookworm asked, his voice sounding somewhat seductive.

"Heheh, yes." Cody suddenly flinched. "Oh! N-Noah..."

Tanned lips started placing kisses on his neck without any warning. Cody's teal eyes closed blissfully and he relaxed into Noah's actions, tilting his head in the opposite direction.

Noah chuckled before hands went to Cody's waist and spun him around so they were facing each other, their faces inches away as a smirk curved over his mouth.

"You seem to be in a good mood for someone who hates being outdoors," Cody commented, looping his arms around Noah's neck.

"Pft. It's either this or going back and throwing more pebbles into water. I'd like to end our time here in the least terrible way possible."

They smiled at each other before closing their eyes and leaning in to share a passionate kiss. In almost no time they were fully making out as Noah stroked at Cody's sides, both letting out a few soft moans that were escaping from their throats.

As they continued kissing, Cody noticed that behind Noah's neck where his hands were, he was still gripping onto the stick Noah used to draw him the picture in the dirt, and the rock he had written on as a gift to his boyfriend. It hit him that these two objects were what caused them to be here, so close to each other, together as one.

One of their most romantic moments was caused by sticks and stones.

**The End!**

* * *

**Author's Note Thingy: I really liked writing that, but I'll be perfectly honest, the idea was better in my head than it was written &amp; published &amp; stuff. I had a little bit of trouble finding a way to make Noah leave Cody by himself so Cody could surprise him with the drawing on the rock. The way I did it isn't really what I like/wanted, but oh well! It was still so much fun to write! NoCo will always be my number one!**

**Hope you liked it! c:**


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